My MIL! I was on the phone with her last night while I was brushing Olivia's teeth and I commented that her teeth where different shades of white and I hoped that was normal. So my MIL asked if she was getting enough calcium. I said she nurses at least 20 times a day and my MIL said well that doesn't mean anything! There's not enough calcium just in breastmilk, she needs cows milk! Arrrghh! I just politely changed the subject but when I called my mother and told her she died laughing!

Shawna, married to Michael, mommy to Elijah 1/18/01, Olivia 11/9/02, and Eliana 1/22/06

She said once that dd is "so pale because all she eats is breastmilk and her fat is only milk fat." I guess the fact that I'm pretty pale has NOTHING to do with the fact that dd has the same coloring. :

Jessica, mom to 3 little ladies and twins who can't figure out where her avatar came from.

(1) The bioavailability (the amount of a nutrient that the body can actually absorb) of the nutrients in each fluid differs markedly. For example, human babies can absorb 67% of the calcium in human milk compared to only 25% of the calcium in cow's milk.

(2) The calcium concentration of human milk is just 26 milligrams per 100 milliliters (~3 oz) compared to 113 mg per 100 mL in cow's milk.

(3) A 1 year old needs 800 mg of Ca per day, *assuming* it comes from cow's milk. That means the baby needs to be absorbing 200
mg per day (based on the fact that 25% is actually absorbed from cow's milk). That translates to about 20 oz of cow's milk.

(4) Since 67% of Ca is absorbed from breastmilk, a baby needs 3/2*200, or 300 mg of calcium from breastmilk souces. At 26 mg/ 100 mL calcium in breastmilk that means a baby needs to drink 1150 mL (~38 oz) of breastmilk a day to completely fulfill her calcium needs.

No cow ever has to enter the picture as long as babe is getting significant amounts of breastmilk.

UlrikeDG -- I've actually read both 600 and 800 mg for 1 year. Though I thought I'd pulled the 800 mg numer from Dr Sears Baby Book. If you take 600 mg as the requirement, then the amount of breastmilk needed drops to 28 ounces. (I assembled my post from calculations I did for another list last summer).

Jeanvanzyl -- Ounce per ounce, there is less Ca in breastmilk than in cow's milk (26 vs 113 mg per 100 mL), but it's more absorbable (67% vs 25%). The lower concentrations of Ca in breastmilk is the reason that many docs tell you to introduce cow's milk, not realizing that the Ca in breastmilk is more absorbable.

This is also assuming there are no solids. Usually by the time somebody is considering straight cow's milk, the baby is eating solids. There are plenty of good calcium sources that don't involve drinking cow's milk, and if the baby is nursing, her needs are perfectly well covered.

She suggestions I do everything from put her on a bottle to just giving her "real milk":

Off topic kind of but my 6 year old told me that I should not give the baby so much milk from me. He heard someone say that choclate was bad for babies. I asked him what does that have to do with his sister and he replied "well you make choclate milk don't you?"(some kid told him that choclate milk comes from brown cows so you het the pic!)